USM Chess Festival 2011

30 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – University of Science Malaysia (USM) is organising two chess tournaments in the new year 2011 called Pesta Catur USM ke-17. The USM Individual Chess Tournament will be held from 15-16 January 2011 and the USM Team Chess Tournament will be held from 22-23 January 2011 at the Dewan Utarma Pelajar (DPA/DPB),  USM main campus, USM, Penang.

The tentative programmes for 15-16 January 2011 and 22-23 January 2011 shown below:-

The tournament fees:

Team tournament fees:

Pls contact the following person for information:-
Mr. Tan Eng Seong, Honourary Asst Secretary of Penang Chess Association,
email: estan64@streamyx.com
h/p: 012-4299517

To read more details, please visit penangchess.com or click here.

Snowdrops Beat Oldhands In Czech Coal 2010

30 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In Marianzke Lazne, the Chess Coal Match had been held between the team “Snowdrops” comprising of the ladies of Koneru, Caoili, Olsarova and Cmilyte against “Old hands” comprising of Hort, Uhlmann, Velimirovic and Portisch. The double round robin format of the tournament where all play all.

In the end Snowdrops won 18-14 where Koneru Humpy contributed six of the points and Viktorija Cmilyte (pix left) of Lithuania contributed 5.5 points.

The tables below summarises the results of the Czech Coal 2010 from 20 November 2010 till 27 November 2010:-



To see more, please visit chessvibes.com or click here.

Or, to read more, please visit The Times of India or click here.

Luke McShane Wins Remco Heite Tournament

 30 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the Remco Heite Chess Tournament in Wolvega, Netherlands, GM Luke McShane from the United Kingdom won with 3.5/5 pts beating five other highly rated chess players. Anish Giri finished in second spot with 3.0/5 pts. The tournament is held once every two years and with conjuction with a school chess tournament in the Netherlands.

 

To read more, please visit chessvibes.com or click here.

Official website : http://www.heiteschaaktoernooi.nl/

Games in PGN via TWIC

Lim Chong, Chess Overboard, Passes Away!

27 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Bernama sub-editor, Lim Chong passes away on his return flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. His body is currently at Serdang Hospital for a postmortem, reported the Malaysian Insider today.

Lim, 56, an economic news service sub-editor with Bernama, left for London on Tuesday for an assignment. He died on the flight back to Malaysia.

 

Lim Chong is well known among chess circles as the chess columnist, Chess Overboard published on the Datcchess.blogspot.com over the past year of 2010. Lim Chong is a chess enthusiast and is close to Dato’ Tan Chin Nam, the chess supremo of Malaysia. Lim Chong has played on the Tan & Tan chess team in the 2009 and 2010 Kuala Lumpur Chess League held at Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur.

Lim Chong is also a council member of the Selangor Chess Association.

To read more, please visit The New Straits Times news portal or click here.

Or to read more from the Malaysian Insider, please click here.

Malaysia’s Golden Winners!

27 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The list of Gold Medal winners for Malaysia at the 16th Asian Games as quoted from Bernama news wire are as follows:-

 

 

 

To read more, please visit Bernama news portal or click here.

China Win Gold In Chess, 16th Asian Games 2010

27 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the completion of the semi-final and final stages of the Men’s Team Chess event of the  16thAsian Games in Guangzhou, China prevailed to beat Iran, 2.5-1.5 (semi-final) and Philippines, 3.5-0.5 (final) giving them the gold medal. Philippines got the silver and India the bronze. India earned the bronze after beating Iran, 3.5-0.5 in the other final playoffs.

The Final Ranking Table After The Semi-Final and Finals of the Men’s Team Chess, 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou (26 November 2010) shown below.

   

Uzbekistan vs Vietnam, Team Chess, 16th Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou.

In the women’s team event, China finished top with the gold medal and Uzbekistan the silver medal and Vietnam the bronze medal. Relevant tables shown below.

Meanwhile in the individual events, GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam (pix top) of Uzbekistan collected the gold medal for his country with a 7.5 point/9 in the individual chess event. GM Le Quang Liem won the silver medal for Vietnam and GM Bu Xiangzhi the bronze medal for China.

In the women’s individual chess event, GM Hou Yifan won the gold medal for China with an incredible 8.5/9 performance. GM Zhao Xue, Hou’s colleague, collected the silver medal and IM Harika Dronavalli the bronze medal for India.

Overall medal tally in chess event shown below. China captured 5 gold medals in chess event and Uzbekistan one gold. Philippines carried back two silver medals from chess.

To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.

Or visit asia-chess.com for some chess reports of the Asian Games or click here.

To read more similar posts, please click here.

Syukuraliev’s Shock Win Against Le Quang Liem

25 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In round 5, Vietnam crashed to a shock defeat to Kyrgyzstan losing 3.5-0.5. Here is the board 1 game between the highly fancied Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem against an untitled Kyrgyzstan player, Shukuraliev Algis of Kyrgyzstan.

The Queen’s Gambit Declined opening transpired during the game.

[Event "Asian Games - Team Standard chess - Men"]
[Site "Guangzhou"]
[Date "2010.11.22"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Shukuraliev, Algis"]
[Black "Le, Quang Liem"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D35"]

{D35: Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 Be7 7. e3 Bf5 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Nbd7 10. O-O O-O 11. Rab1 a5 {last book move} 12. Rfe1 Ne4 13. Bxe7 ({Weaker is} 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 $19 (14... exd3 {is no comparison} 15. Bxd8 Rfxd8 16. Rbd1 $16)) 13... Qxe7 14. Nd2 f5 15. f3 {White threatens to win material: f3xe4} Nd6 16. f4 {White has a new backward pawn: e3} (16. e4 fxe4 17. fxe4 dxe4 18. Ncxe4 Rae8 $11) 16... Kh8 17. Nf3 Nf6 18. Re2 Rg8 19. Rf1 g6 20. Ne5 g5 (20... Nfe4 21. Nxe4 Nxe4 22. Rf3 $11) 21. a3 Nh5 (21... g4 22. g3 $11) 22. g3 Nf6 23. Rc2
Nfe4 24. Nxe4 Nxe4 {The knight dominates} 25. fxg5 Rxg5 26. Rg2 Qe6 27. Rf4 Rf8 28. Qf1 Rf6 29. Qf3 c5 30. a4 Rg7 31. h4 (31. Rc2 c4 $11) 31... c4 {This push gains space} (31... Qc8 32. g4 fxg4 33. Rgxg4 $11) 32. Kh2 $11 Rg8 33. Qh5 { The isolani on f5 becomes a target} Nd6 34. g4 fxg4 35. Rfxg4 Rxg4 36. Nxg4 Rg6 37. Ne5 {Menacing} Rxg2+ 38. Kxg2 Qf5 {Black threatens to win material: Qf5xh5} 39. Qf3 {White threatens to win material: Qf3xd5} Kg7 (39... Qe4 $142 $11 {the rescuing straw}) 40. Qxd5 $18 Qc2+ $4 {Black falls apart} (40... Ne4 41. Qxb7+ Kf8 42. Qb8+ Ke7 43. Nc6+ Kd7 44. Qc8+ Kxc8 45. Ne7+ Kd7 46. Nxf5 c3 47. bxc3 Nxc3 $16) 41. Kg3 Nf5+ (41... Ne4+ 42. Kf4 Qf2+ 43. Kxe4 Qxh4+ 44. Kf5 Qh3+ 45.
Kf4 Qh2+ 46. Kg4 h5+ 47. Kg5 Qg3+ 48. Kxh5 Qh3+ 49. Kg5 Qxe3+ 50. Kg4 Qg1+ 51. Kf5 Qb1+ 52. Ke6 $18) 42. Kf4 (42. Kh3 $142 {secures the point} Nh6 43. Qxb7+ Kf6 44. Qc6+ Kg7 45. Qc7+ Kh8 46. Qd8+ Ng8 47. Qf8 $18) 42... Qf2+ 43. Qf3 Qxf3+ 44. Nxf3 Nd6 (44... Ne7 45. Ke5 $18) 45. Ke5 (45. Nd2 $5 {makes it even easier for White} c3 46. bxc3 b5 47. axb5 Nxb5 $18) 45... c3 46. bxc3 (46. Kxd6 $4 {if White takes the knight he will lose} c2 47. e4 c1=Q $19) 46... Nc4+ 47. Ke6 b5 $4 {the pressure is too much, Black crumbles} (47... Nb6 $142 $18) 48. axb5 a4 49. Ne1 a3 50. Nc2 a2 51. Na1 Kf8 (51... Nb6 52. Kd6 Nc4+ 53. Kc6 $18)
52. Kd7 Nb6+ (52... Kf7 $18 {is the last straw}) 53. Kc6 Nc4 54. b6 Na5+ 55. Kc7 Ke7 56. d5 1-0

 

The Queen’s Gambit Declined opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An isolated f5 pawn created. After white played 33. Qh5, the pawn f5 is attacked twice by white and defended twice by black. White intends to bring the g3 pawn into play forward to g4 to attack the f5 pawn thrice. Winning the attack.

White was able to win three extra black pawns in the ensuing attack and counter blows from Black.

 

By move 56, White has stopped black’s only queening threat by placing the knight at a1 preventing the black a-pawn to advance. The white king is strategically positioned at c7, gaining control of b8 and d8 queening squares. While the other four white passed pawns are too menacing a threat. White played 56.d5, and if black plays 56…Kf6, then 57. d6 advancing to its destination. If the d pawn fails, then the b, c and e pawns are there to pick up the slack.

With such a menacing attack by the pawns, black surrendered to the hopelessness of the endgame battle. The win by Shukuraliev on board 1 against Vietnam, cascaded into more wins on two other boards giving Kyrgyzstan a surprise massive win 3.5-0.5 against the highly fancied Vietnamese chess team.

To read more similar posts, please click here.

Team Events Enter Semi-Final Stage

25 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the team chess event of the 16th Asian Games 2010 have reached the semi-final stage where the top four teams will play two rounds of knock-out format.

The men teams that qualify are China, India, Iran and Philippines.

The women teams that qualify are Vietnam, China, India and Uzbekistan.

Men’s Team Semi-Final stage, 16th Asian Games shown below.

 

Women’s Team Semi-Final stage, 16th Asian Games 2010 shown below.

 

The round 1 matches will start at 15:00 hours today, 25th November 2010.

To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.

Or visit asia-chess.com for some chess reports of the Asian Games or click here.

To read more similar posts, please click here.

Liew Ken Yew Wins The 2nd November Rating

23 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the Cochrane Sports Center of Excellence, Liew Ken Yew beat 31 others to win the 2nd November Rating tournament. He achieved 5 points from 7 rounds of classical chess time control and a better tiebreak points. In fact four other players achieved the same 5 points. The other four players include Zakaria Mohd Firdaus, Jayamurthey, Haslindah Ruslan and Yat Guo Jie.

Liew Ken Yew wins 2nd November Rating Tournament in Kuala Lumpur. But it was close as 4 players tied for 1st place. But on tie-break, Ken Yew emerged Champion, followed by Fadrus Zakaria (Stone Master's brother), Pavitranayagi and 'birthday girl' Haslindah Ruslan.

         Separate prizes were awarded for the different rating categories. The list of prize winners are as follows:

Elo 1751 to 1950:

1st  Liew Ken Yew
2nd Yat Guo Jie
3rd Subramanian Sivanesan
4th Olivia Madhavan   

Elo 1551 to 1750:

1st Pavitranayagi Jayamurthey
2nd Haslindah Ruslan
3rd Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan
4th Yap Wan Lin

Unrated & Elo below 1551: 

1st Mohd Fadrus Zakaria
2nd Adrian Choo Cheng Yong
3rd Dinesh Siddharthan M.

Pictures of the winners of the Pictures of the 2nd November Rating are shown left, right, top and bottom. Since yesterday was Haslindah’s birthday, the chess organisers sportingly provided the participants with a birthday cake to celebrate Haslindah’s joyous birthday in a friendly atmosphere after the end of the tournament.

 

The birthday girl, Haslindah, in a happy and joyful mood with her piece of birthday chocolate cake. It looks real yummy! :))

 

 

 

 

 

The final rankings of the 2nd November Rating chess tournament held from 20-24th November 2010 are shown below:-

(results and pictures courtesy of Collin Madhavan, Cheras Chess Academy@ kids4chess.com blogger)

China Victorious vs Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan

23 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the sixth round of the Team Chess event of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China made sure of defeating the giant-killer team, Kyrgyzstan by silencing them 4-0. Kyrgyzstan simply has no answer to the might of the Chinese team.

With this win, China are almost certain of winning the gold medal in the men’s chess team event at the 16th Asian Games.

Meanwhile Philippines who have steadily climbed the ladder convincingly defeated Uzbekistan, 3.5-0.5. Wesley So held the former World Champion, Kasimdzhanov to a draw on the first board. All remaining boards were won decisively by Philippines. GM Antonio Rogelio Jr (2573) (pix left) contributed to his team’s win on board 2. Philippines looks good for silver.

On third rank is India who won their match against Qatar 3.5-0.5. Provided they win or draw their final round 7 match tomorrow, India also looks good for the bronze medal.

Men’s Team Chess 16th Asian Games – Round 6 Results.

Men’s Chess Team Ranks, 16th Asian Games After Round 6.

In the women’s team event, China steadily overcomed Uzbekistan 3-1 in the sixth round of the Asian Games 2010 to head the leadership board. Boards 1 and 3 games were decisive for China where GM Hou Yifan and GM Zhao Xue were the winners. Unfortunately WIM Muminova Nafisa of Uzbekistan was at the receiving end of Hou Yifan’s adroit chess skills.

India are also on course for their silver medal when they beat their neighbours, Bangladesh, 3.5-0.5. The bronze medal is still up for grabs as both Uzbekistan and Vietnam have 4 wins and 2 losses with 8 points each.

Syria’s Al Jeldah Fatimah (pix left) beat Safa Abuganiya of Jordan for the battle of bottom teams. Syria overwhelmed Jordan, 3-1.

Women’s Team Chess 16th Asian Games – After Round 6.

To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.

Or visit asia-chess.com for some chess reports of the Asian Games or click here.

To read more similar posts, please click here.

China Dominate Both Categories Chess Team Events

23 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the Asian Games chess team event, hosts China dominates in both team categories men and women with the Men’s team clearly in the lead with 13.5 points and 1.5 points ahead of Philippines team in second. The sixth round of play is ongoing right now. Tomorrow will be the last day of play to decide the final rankings of the countries.

In women’s category, China is leading with 15.0 points and India in second with 14.0 points. (Fireyrook thinks the results table from results.com is not quite right as it shows Uzbekistan with 15.5 points in third. Maybe it should read either 13.5 or 12.5 points for Uzbekistan).

Meanwhile Malaysia did not participate in the team chess event as they require four minimum players for each category.

Similarly the women’s team also require four players and not two. As such Malaysia is not represented in either the Men’s nor Women’s team chess event of this year’s Asian Games edition.

In 2014, South Korea will be the new host for the Asian Games and chess would not feature in their probable line of sports then.

To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.

Or visit asia-chess.com for some chess reports of the Asian Games or click here.

To read similar posts, please click here.

Philippines And Kyrgyzstan Creates Surprise Upsets!

22 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here at the Asian Games, 17 countries are competing for the men’s chess gold team event at Guangzhou. During the fifth round, team Philippines continues to create an upset by beating second-seeded India with a 2.5-1.5 win. Boards 1 and Board 4 were decisive for Philippines when both GM Wesley So and GM Torre Eugenio gave important board wins against GM Harikrishna P and GM Adhiban B of India respectively.

China continued to coast to a steady win 3-1 against seventh seeded, Iran. The lower boards were decisive for China where GM Bu Xiangzhi (pix above) and GM Zhou Jianchao.

Team China is speeding ahead with 5 solid wins and a clear two points gap with 10 points at the top of the leaderboard of the men’s chess team event at the Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou, China.

Philippines continues its rise with another major win over India and are now in second spot behind leaders China. Kyrgyzstan, the tenth seeded team also created an upset in the fifth round by beating fourth seeded, Vietnam, 3.5-0.5. The highly fancied Vietnamese, GM Le Quang Liem lost to an untitled Shukuraliev Algis of Kyrgyzstan on board 1. In fact, it was a disaster for Vietnam as they had 3 GMs and 1 IM playing against three untitled and 1 FM for the Kyrgyzstan chess team.

Meanwhile Bangladesh’s two GMs failed to deliver when they lost on boards 1 and 3 against Qatar’s chess team. Qatar won 2.5-1.5 against Bangladesh.

To see more results please visit Chess-results.com on Asian Games or click here.

Wesley So’s Third Round Win, Team Chess Asian Games

21 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In the Team Chess third round Philippines met Bangladesh chess team in the Asian Games, Guangzhou. On board 1, GM Murshed Niaz of Bangladesh met Super GM Wesley So from the Philippines.

[Event "16th Asian Games Chess Team Tournament"]
[Site "Guangzhou/China"]
[Date "2010.11.20"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Murshed, Niaz"]
[Black "So, Wesley"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[WhiteElo "2406"]
[BlackElo "2674"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Be2 c5 7. dxc5 Nbd7 8.O-O Nxc5 9. Nb5 a6 10. Bc7 Qe8 11. Nc3 Qc6 12. Be5 e6 13. Nd4 Qb6 14. Nb3 Ncd7 15. Bg3 Qd8 16. Bd6 Re8 17. a4 b6 18. a5 b5 19. Bf3 Bb7 20. Qd2 Nb6 21. Bb4 Nc4 22. Qc1 Nd7 23. g3 Nde5 24. Bg2 Nc6 25. Bc5 N6xa5 26. e4 Rc8 27. exd5 Nxb3 28. cxb3 Nxb2 0-1

Wesley So found the strongest continuation with black 28…Nxb2! creating more opportunities for an attack on white pieces on c5 and c3.

If white plays 29. Qxb2, then black should play 29…Rxc5, followed by 30…Rxc3 with the bishop on g7 protecting c3 square. A follow-up attack by the black pawn 31…b4 attacking the c3 square further.

The win on board 1 helped Philippines to beat Bangladesh 3-1 in the third round of the team chess event in the 16th Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou.

Team Ranking After Round 3, 16th Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou.

At the moment, India is way ahead with 3 solid wins and 6 points, and China is in second place with the same 3 wins. In third is Vietnam with 2 wins and 1 loss.

Philippines is in sixth position with 2 wins and 1 loss. While Bangladesh is in 12th position with 1 win and 2 losses so far.

To read more chess results of the Asian Games 2010, please visit chess-results.com or click here.

Or, to see more news of ASIAN GAMES 2010 Chess - click here.

Pogonina Wins 4th Round Game, Superfinal 60th Russian Championship Women

21 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The Superfinal 60th Russian Chess Championship Women is now taking place in the Moscow Central House of Chess from 16th November till 27th November 2010.

The chess tournament is a round robin with participation of some of the world’s reknown women grand masters/international grandmasters: Tatiana Kosintseva (2581), Nadezhda Kosintseva (2576), Alexandra Kosteniuk (2507), Alisa Galliamova (2487), Valentine Gunina (2479), Natalia Pogonina (2472), Olga Girya (2435), Anastasia Bodnaruk (2407), Nazi Paykidze (2401), Svetlana Matveeva (2389), Tatiana Schadrina (2384) and Vera Nebolsina (2377). The prize fund is 1,400,000 Rubles = 33,000 Euros = US $45,000. To read more of this tournament details, please click here or click here.

Here is a round 4 game between Natalia Pogonina (pix left) and Vera Nebolsina. The Sicilian Pelikan/Sveshnikov variation [B33] transpired during the game.

[Event "Superfinal 60th Russian Championship Women"]
[Site "Moscow/Russia"]
[Date "2010.11.20"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Pogonina, Natalija"]
[Black "Nebolsina, Vera"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2501"]
[BlackElo "2349"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. a4 a6 8. Na3 Bg4 9. f3 Be6 10. Bc4 Qa5 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. O-O Be7 13. Bg5 O-O 14. Qd3 Rad8 15. Rad1 Nd4 16. Kh1 d5 17. exd5 exd5 18. f4 Bc5 19. Bxf6 Rxf6 20. fxe5 Rxf1+ 21. Rxf1 Qc7 22. Re1 Qf7 23. Nd1 Rf8 24. Ne3 Qh5 25. c3 Ne6 26. Qxd5 Bxe3 27. Qxe6+ Kh8 28. h3 Bd2 29. Qd6 1-0

White played 29.Qd6 with a mate threat with Qxf8 #. If black plays 29…Qe8 or 29…Kg8, then white wins the black bishop en prise at d2, 30.Qxd2.

Natalia Pogonina won this round 4 game.

Here are the round 4 results shown below:-

 

 

 

Official website: http://www.russiachess.org